


Holding your bones together

by liionne



Series: A thousand ways to meet [5]
Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: M/M, References to Suicide Attempt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-20
Updated: 2013-07-20
Packaged: 2017-12-20 20:24:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,285
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/891469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/liionne/pseuds/liionne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jim gave a laugh that sounded like a cough. His eyes were still blurry as he tried to look up at the man that was hovering over him. He was wearing scrubs, so he was obviously a doctor, but he kept looking around as if for someone to help him. Eventually there was a call that Jim couldn't make out, and the man attending to him looked down at him.</p><p>Damn he was hot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Holding your bones together

He woke to the bright, fake light of hospital lighting, the weird lighting that was pressed into the ceiling, and had mirrors around it to reflect it further. He'd recognise it anywhere. Just like every time he woke up to hospital lights, he wondered why the cheap bastards didn't just get more powerful bulbs or something instead of using mirrors.

The second thing he noticed, after the shitty lighting, was that he was completely alone. _Figures_. He thought. His mom cared, but not enough to get her ass over here to the hospital to be waiting teary-eyed for her son to wake up. He tutted to himself for expecting her to actually be there for him.

And then the third thing he noticed, after the lighting and his absentee mother, was that he hurt. Everywhere. Every little inch of him felt like it was in constant agony. So this was what jumping off a building felt like. Shame it hadn't been tall enough to kill him like he'd been hoping.

He made a small noise of disgust as he attempted to roll over. He just wanted to sleep now.

"Woah there." There were strong, steady hands turning him onto his back again, and he groaned. "Yeah I know it sucks,but you gotta stay on your back or you're gonna get tangled." The deep, gruff voice dropped to a low murmur. "And that _would_ be bitch."

Jim gave a laugh that sounded like a cough. His eyes were still blurry as he tried to look up at the man that was hovering over him. He was wearing scrubs, so he was obviously a doctor, but he kept looking around as if for someone to help him. Eventually there was a call that Jim couldn't make out, and the man attending to him looked down at him.

Damn he was hot.

"How're you feeling, James?" He asked. Jim noticed for the first time the soft Southern lilt with which he spoke, and he felt his insides melt a little. So he was a doctor, had the most gorgeous hazel eyes Jim had ever seen, and was a Southen Gentleman. Wouldn't his mom be proud when Jim was bringing him home.

"Jim." He correctd him, and the doctor smiled softly.

"Alright," He nodded. "If we're getting informal I guess you should call me Leonard rather than Doctor then."

"Leonard." The name graced Jim's lips, and he smiled a little bit.

"So, Jim," Leonard began, as he worked somewhere off to Jim's right, just a little too far out of his vision for him to be able to see him fully. Still, his voice was enough to make Jim shiver. "You never answered my question."

"Huh?"

"How're you feeling?" Leonard repeated.

"Like shit." Jim muttered.

Leonard gave a short laugh. "Anyhting more specific?"

"My mouthfeels like sandpaper and everything hurts." Jim answered.

"I'll get you some water." Leonard murmured. Before he handed him the glass he set it down on a bedside table, and put an arm around Jim to help to prop him up on the pillows. It hurt, but Jim tried not to wince too much.

As Leonard was helping him up, two other people in the sae scrubs as Leonard walked through the ward. They smirked to each other, and then one of them said, "I didn't know you'd taken to nursing, McCoy."

"Shut your damn mouth, Treadway." Leonard snapped. Damn he was sexy when he was angry, Jim thought. He glared after Treadway, scowling at his back until he could no longer see him.

When he was gone, Jim muttered, "Asshole."

"You're tellin' me kid." Leonard muttered. He moved round to the other side of the bed, grabbing the chart and jotting a  few things down onto it. "His dad's the chief of medicine so he thinks he owns the place. Son of a bitch hasn't even  graduated yet."

"When did you graduate?" Jim asked.

"Not for a while yet." Leonard gave a little smirk. "I'll be back to check on you soon, alright?"

"Alright." Jim nodded, watching Leonard's retreating figure and trying not to watch his ass. He leaned back in his bed a little, letting out a huff of a breath.

So maybe Jim hated hospitals. Maybe he would rather be dead than in the hospital. But with Leonard watching over him, well, Jim was starting to like sick bay just a little bit more.

~~~~~

Jim was in the ICU at first. He had broken a phenomenal amount of bones, and surgeons and spent a very long time sewing him back together again. Jim knew that Leo knew what he had done. What had landed him in the hospital. Jim knew too but he didn't want to talk about it. So whenever they were in one another's company, no one brought it up.

And they were in one another's company a lot - Leonard, for the first day, had only visited Jim when it was time for rounds and Dr. Puri had asked him to check on him. But when he realised that Jim wasn't getting any visitors, and that he either spent his time staring at the wall opposite his bed, staring at the ceiling, or sleeping, he began to visit him during his breaks too.

He was in the ICU for a week or so, and then they moved him out to a regular old hospital bed in the usual ward. Leonard would still come and sit with him for dinner, though; the head nurse, Chapel, turned a blind eye, because she too had noticed how lonely the kid looked. He was 18, had been in hospital for two weeks, and his mother hadn't batted an eyelid. Jim knew that she wasn't off planet, either; that was what really hurt.

"How bad was I when they got me here?" Jim asked one lunch time, prodding at a pot of neon green jello without actually eating any.

"Ridiculously bad, kid." Leonard told him. "I was holding your bones together with my bare hands."

Jim pondered this for a moment. And that was when he decided to call Leonard "Bones" from here on out.

~~~~~

Leonard would come and sit with him whenever he wasn't working, and Jim was grateful. He always left after he'd fallen asleep, and was back in the hospital doing rounds when he woke up, always somewhere in Jim's view. That was how he liked it. He liked being able to see Bones. Being able to see the little faces he pulled when he was concentrating, the  furrow in his brow when someone got a question he considered to be easy wrong, or the small upward curve of his lips if Puri made one of his subtle jokes. Bones was a god damn attractive man, and he might have been 6 years old than him, but Jim was crushing on him hard.

When Bones came to join him for lunch, he pulled himself up on the end of his bed, being very careful not to knock his bad leg. He ate the jello that Jim obviously wasn't going to eat whilst Jim pushed his left overs around his plate. "You're not from round here, are you?" Jim asked. He wanted to get to the bottom of that South accent.

"Nope." Bones responded simply.

"Where're you from?" Jim asked.

"Georgia." Bones replied, which not only explained that soft Southern Accent, but also explained the acts of chivalry towards the nurses, female patients and visitors that Jim could now chalk down to him being a Southern Gentleman. Jim smirked a little.

"What made you come up here then?" Jim asked.

Bones raised an eyebrow. "What is this, Jim, the spanish inquisition?"

Jim held his hands up, as if in surrender. "Just curious." he explained. He was curious. He was always curious about Bones. He wanted to know everything about him.

"Came here to escape home," he answered, scraping the bottom of the pot of jello. "My fiancee left me. So I left Georgia."

"Damn." Jim muttered. "Sorry."

"You'll never guess who she left me for, though." Bones was smirking, but Jim could see the bitterness in the angry slant of his eyebrows.

"Who?" Jim asked.

"Treadway." Bones answered.

Jim winced. He'd watched many an unpleasant exchange between the two; Treadway was always so smug, and Jim had always put it down to his dad being Chief of Medicine. He never knew it was over something so personal.

"I'm really sorry, Bones." Jim murmured.

Bones looked up at him then, and shook his head. "Naw, it's okay. She's a real bitch, I'm glad i got out when I did." And then he grinned as if nothing was wrong or ever had been wrong, and Jim found himself grinning too.

~~~~~

It was a few days later, when Jim was getting close to his discharge date, that he asked Leonard a question that had been on his mind for a while: "Why me, Bones?"

Bones had smirked, although it was full of bemusement. "What d'ya mean?" he asked.

"Well..." Jim shrugged. It no longer hurt to do so. "Why're you sat here talking to me? Why have you sat there talking to me for the past month?"

Bones let out a small sigh. "'Cause you're a lonely kid, Jim. A lonely kid who doesn't deserve to be lonely. You're a god  damn good person, an amazing person, kid, and you deserve someone to be sat in that chair by your bedside twenty-four seven. And when no one showed up, I knew it had to be me. 'Cause you deserve a friend. And also because if you stared at that wall any longer I was worried you're eyeballs might fall out." He teased.

Jim was touched. He felt his heart swell, and he manged only a weak chuckle at Bones' joke. "Thanks, Bones. For everything." he said, his voice soft.

Bones laid a gentle hand on his shoulder. "Not a problem, kid. Genuinely not a problem."

And when he left to go and resume his shift was Puri, Jim was left with the faint smell of Bones and the warmth of his hand still on his shoulder.

~~~~~

Jim hated hospitals. But when his discharge date came around, and he was officially free to leave the hospital, now  virtually cast free and not achey anymore. Nurses were trying to usher hi out of the room, but he didn't want to go before he'd spoken to Bones. He couldn't leave without saying goodbye.

He could see their group being led round by a man that Jim had never seen before, and every single one of them looked bored. The doctor lectured them for a moment, and then they all dispersed, scurrying away from him as quickly as they could. All except for one, who followed the doctor out of the ward.

"Jim!" Bones cried, jogging over to him. "Good to see you up." he grinned. "Jesus, I didn't think you were that tall."

Jim was only an inch or so shorter than Bones was. He gave a small laugh. "Grew up quick." he told him.

Bones gave him a fond smile, but it faded after a moment. "Jim, I'd give you a ride home but Puri's on holiday so  Treadway's taking the class-"

"Treadway?" Jim frowned.

"Treadway Senior." Bones clarified.

"Oh." Jim nodded.

"And he'll be so pissed if I'm late to rounds. Like, kick-me-out-of-my-placement pissed." Bones looked as if it was physically hurting him to have to tell him that. One again Jim's eart swelled. Damn it, Bones was too good. "I can walk you down to the entrance, though. How're you get home?"

"Cab." Jim told him.

Bones nodded, placing a hand under his elbow to lead him in the right direction. "Let's go then." He smiled softly,  leading Jim into the elevator.

It was sunny outside; Jim had missed the sunshine. He'd been stuck inside too long. He drank it in, closing his eyes for a moment as the warmth met his skin.

"I'm gonna miss you kid." Bones said, breaking his quiet basking.

Jim opened his eyes. Bones really was too good. Jim gave a small sigh. "I'm going to miss you too."

Silence fell between them, in which they looked at each other. Just looking, caught in each other's gaze. And then Bones' pager beeped, and he closed his eyes as if he were tired. "Damn it." he muttered. "I'll have to go, Jim." he said, hailing a  cab for him. "Good luck out there. And please, _please_ be safe." Jim nodded. He was about to get into the cab when Bones made a small "oh!" sound, and grabbed his wrist gently. "Here," he said, holding out a slip of paper to him. "Please, just, if you need me. Call. Whenever. Any hour, any day."

Jim unfurled the piece of paper and took in the digits scrawled in thick black marker. And then without thinking, he wrapped his arms around Bones' neck, pulling him close to kiss him firmly. Bones was seemingly stunned for a second, but then he caught up, his lips moving in time with Jim's. Nothing mattered, then. In those glorious seconds, nothing mattered but the feel of Bones lips on his, the smell of Bones working its way into his clothing, and the feeling of the sun on his back.

He only pulled away when Bones' pager beeped again. Bones looked at him, his lips still parted a little. Unnecessarily licking his own lips, Jim said, "You should go. You'll get into trouble."

Bones gave a short nod.

"Thank you, Bones."

Bones gave a small smile, and he nodded as Jim slid into the cab. "Not a problem, Jim."


End file.
